ByteDance and TikTok asked a US appeals court on Monday to temporarily halt a law requiring the Chinese company to sell its video-sharing app by January 19 or face a US ban, warning it would “shut down TikTok — one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms — for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users on the eve of a presidential inauguration.”
In an emergency motion filed with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the companies’ lawyers argued the prospect of Supreme Court intervention “and reverse is sufficiently high to warrant the temporary pause needed to create time for further deliberation.”
The company also said in the filing that “if the prohibitions in the Act come into effect on January 19, 2025, to avoid interruption of services for tens of millions of TikTok users outside the United States, where the Act’s prohibitions do not apply, we would need a period of lead time to work closely with our service providers.”
The request follows Friday’s ruling by a three-judge appeals panel upholding the divestment law. ByteDance asked the court to decide on the emergency stay by December 16, citing the need for time for Supreme Court deliberation.
The companies highlighted President-elect Donald Trump’s opposition to a TikTok ban, arguing a delay would allow the incoming administration to establish its position. Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said Friday that Trump “wants to save TikTok” while protecting American data.
The Justice Department urged the appeals court to quickly reject the request to maximize time for Supreme Court consideration. The law’s implementation would put TikTok’s fate in the hands of President Joe Biden, who could grant a 90-day extension beyond January 19, and then Trump, who takes office January 20.
Trump previously attempted to ban TikTok in 2020 during his first term, along with Tencent’s WeChat, though courts blocked the WeChat ban. The current law grants the US government broad authority to ban foreign-owned apps deemed to pose data collection concerns about Americans.
ByteDance faces significant challenges in proving sufficient progress toward divestiture to qualify for an extension of the deadline.
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